About change ...

It, of course, begins with us - one person at a time.

I’m rather proud of myself for contributing to the change I see in a little girl that moves in and out of my environment. She is the sister of the little boy I care for.

Both her parents are scientists. However, they have been influenced by the massive marketing of what a manufactured girl’s life is supposed to look like. Plus, as all parents do, they want their girl to fit in. Naturally, her world was overflowing with pink and princesses. That is, until I came along.

I decided that, in a small way, I was going to concentrate on her intellectual world. Christmas and birthday gifts consisted of science kits, calligraphy sets, and puzzles etc. I wasn’t doing anything major ... just planting a seed. And I made her aware of my extreme dislike for the color pink.

Also, once in a while, I have an opportunity to chat with her father when he stays home from work. On one such occasion I shared with him a news story about a severe flood in Pakistan. I had read that many women died during the flood because no one had ever taught them how to swim and how to climb a tree. Well, wouldn’t you know it, a week later he had attached a wide rope ladder to the lower branch of a huge tree in their yard (a miniature forest). A month later I watched her when she moved diligently up the tree, from branch to branch, fearless. When she reached the top she looked down at me smiling as I watched her in awe.

Although I never speak to her parents about our huge differences of opinion regarding how to raise girls, somehow they still get the vibrations. My girl is wearing far less pink than she used to.

My job still isn’t finished. I recently picked up a book at her mom’s bedside table; it was a parenting book on how to raise girls. Well, you know me; of course, I immediately searched for the section on sex. My heart stopped. The alarm bells went off. The author was promoting abstinence. I immediately started planning my next move. On the mom’s upcoming birthday, I will give her this book. She’s an avid reader so I know she will read it. Phewwwwww!!! Gotta save my girl from being forced to suppress her sexuality.

Anyhow, anyone can do what I am doing. Plant a seed here and there. Make incremental changes. If you have a niece, for example, take it upon yourself to provide her with intellectual stimulation.

The last thing you want to do is to ask her what she wants. Children are thrown into a world of extreme gender apartheid – it’s the only world they know. Children police each other to maintain society’s prescribed behavior – they do not have the mental capacity to judge whether this is right or wrong. And marketers keep creating more gender differences as it keeps their financial coffers overflowing.

So it’s up to us, progressives, to let in the light of change; to offer an alternative world. If the parents object to the type of gifts you choose, have your answer ready. You don’t let big corporations decide what’s good for your niece. And besides, it’s your money.

Now what to do about the nephews? As you can well understand this is much more difficult. If a boy has the slightest interest in what are considered girl’s activities, he will be severely chided and/or ostracized. And who wants to do that to a child? However, imo, concerning boys, the most important task for progressives is to teach boys to respect girls. How to go about that is for you to decide. One way this could be achieved is through joint boy/girl activities outside. Nature does not discriminate. There is no sign on a pink flower forbidding boys to touch it. Anyway, you get the idea.

That’s it for now.

_{"OTP - Occupy The Patriarchy" ~ me}

The point of philosophy is not to change the world. Philosophy doesn't have a point. It's like asking "what is the point of art, or music?"

Changing the world is the point of activism.

By the way, I loved Adrena's comment. I live with a 12 year old boy and his mom, for seven years now. She keeps him on point, and I have to admit, she does a pretty good job of it. Me? I provide the counterpoint.

She makes him practice his classical, note-for-note perfection. When he comes to me, it's clear we are just going to jam - anything goes, we improvise. And more often than not, that comes out with its own note-for-note perfection.

The truth is, the children need both. They need discipline, and they need freedom, they need to be taught responsibility, and they also need to be cut loose and set free.

No one parent can do all those things for a kid. It takes a family, it takes a community.

The world will change; that is inevitable. Each new generation will alter the world, usually in ways they had no idea of before the fact. Then the challenge of the next generation is to cope with the changing world their parents handed them, which they in turn will shape in ways they haven't even yet imagined, only to hand it off to the grandchildren.

So what's the point?

I saw this quote engraved in gold on Marx's tomb in London's Highgate cemetery. It has stuck with me:

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it”